Five
Nations previous to 1650.

[61] STANDING STONE.--A large and long rock, on the west side of the
river, said to have been detached from its bed on the mountain and
taking a downward course, displacing all obstacles, took a final leap
from the top of the precipice, and landed in a vertical position in
the water near the shore, and remains a standing stone. The main army
encamped directly opposite this, on Standing Stone flats; Hand's
brigade on Wysox creek three miles above.

[62] SHESHEQUIN FLATS.--On site of present Sheshequin in Bradford
County, on the opposite side of the river on site of present Ulster,
was the Indian village of Sheshequin, six miles below Tioga. Cash's
creek divided the town into two parts, the north side being heathen,
those on the south Moravian Christians. About 1772 the latter removed
six miles north and founded a new town, afterward known as Queen
Esther's Town. Sheshequin was destroyed by Col. Hartley in 1778.

[63] TIOGA, the name given by the Iroquois to the wedge of land lying
between the Chemung river and north branch of the Susquehanna; from
_Teyaogen_, an interval, or anything between two other things [Bruyas,
Agniers Racines]. _Teiohogen_, the forks of a river (Gallatin's
vocabulary 387). This has from time immemorial been one of the most
important strategical points of the country of the Five Nations.
Zeisberger passed through here in 1750 and says that "at Tioga or _the
gate_, Six Nations Indians were stationed for the purpose of
ascertaining the character of all persons who crossed over into their
country, and that whoever entered their territory by any other way
than through the gate, or by way of the Mohawk, was suspected by them
of evil purpose and treated as a spy or enemy." An Indian town of
TIOGA near the point, destroyed by Col. Hartley in 1778.

The earliest known account of the place is found in Champlain, who
sent out one of his interpreters, named Stephen Brule, in 1615, to
arrange with the Carantouannais for a force of five hundred warriors,
to co-operate with him in an attack on the Onondaga stronghold, then
located on the town of Fenner, Madison Co., N.Y. Brule with a small
party of Hurons passed through the country of the Five Nations, to the
great town of Carantouan, containing more than eight hundred warriors,
then located on the so-called Spanish Hill near Waverly. Brule
returned to Carantouan after the expedition, and the next year, 1616,
went down the Su